


At This Price

by regdog



Series: Lost Light Fest 2019 [4]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Character Death, Family Drama, Gen, M/M, Murder-Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-17 02:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21046628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regdog/pseuds/regdog
Summary: Thanks to Sideswipe and Sunstreaker the war is over. Ratchet and Ironhide can't accept the price of peace.Trigger warnings-Murder-Suicide





	At This Price

There was finally peace. The Autobots had won. Two months to the day. Megatron was dead and to no one’s surprise, Starscream immediately claimed leadership of the Decepticons. Much to everyone’s surprise, he offered a ceasefire to Optimus and a negotiation of peace.

The treaty had been signed two Earth weeks ago. Now the only patients Ratchet saw were Decepticons in need of more advanced care than they had been able to get from their own medical team and Autobots and Decepticons wanting their forms returned to more peacetime frames.

Ratchet fiddled with the surgical blade then placed it back in the drawer. All of his equipment was neat and orderly. Nothing was out of place, nothing was missing, nothing was glued to Med Bay’s ceiling. 

Med Bay’s door slide opened and Ironhide made his way in. The unmistakable odor of high grade assailing Ratchet.

“Have you had anything but high-grade today?” Ratchet asked.

“No.” Ironhide flopped back on one of the medical berths.

With a weary sigh, Ratchet retrieved a cube of medical grade and handed it to Ironhide. “Drink this before your tank rots.”

“Don’t want it.” 

“I don’t remember asking you if you wanted it. I said drink it.”

With a mulish glare Ironhide took the cube and downed it in three gulps. “Tastes like moose piss.”

“I will refrain from asking how you know what moose piss tastes like.”

Ironhide snorted with a mirthless chuckle. “Blame Sideswipe. He loves---loved stupid human sayings.”

Ratchet winced and walked back to the equipment drawer. Everything in perfect order. Primus he hated it. Unable to contain the wail of rage, grief and agony, he ripped the drawer out and flung it across Med Bay. Ironhide jerked upright.

“I didn’t know, Hide. I didn’t know how bad losing them would hurt. It feels like my spark has been torn to pieces. Our mechlings. Our baby boys are gone. And for what? WHAT?!”

“Peace, Ratch. We’re at peace because of them. Prime’s alive because of them. Without Prime, we never would have stood a chance and the war would be over. Only Megatron would have won and he’d be razing this planet to dust,” Ironhide said, grabbing his oldest friend and enveloping him a crushing embrace. 

The Twins were the reason Megatron was dead. Optimus had been staggered by a shot from Megatron’s fusion cannon. As the warlord prepared to deliver the finishing blast, blurs of gold and red slammed into the Megatron taking the full brunt of the shot. The Twins had no chance. Their chestplates were pressed up against the muzzle of the deadly cannon as their combined impact knocked Megatron off his pedes. Optimus recovered enough to deliver a fatal shot to his downed enemy as the battlefield fell quiet.

The unnatural silence was broken by Ratchet’s spark rending wails as he raced to the pair. Their optics were dimming as Sideswipe curled towards Sunstreaker. Energon bubbled from their lipplates as acrid smoke rose from their shattered chestplates and guttering sparks. Ironhide dropped next to Ratchet, as the two gently eased Sideswipe’s helm on his Suntreaker’s neck cabling. It was how the two always recharged. 

The Twins said no last words, exhaled no last breathy sighs. Their optics went as dark as their spark chambers and their frames began to gray. Ratchet wailed as Ironhide shook. Their Twins. Their Unicron-make-care Twins were gone. Ratchet and Ironhide had raised the pair since the day the medic had found them as mechlings in the gladiatorial Pits of Kaon. 

Having survived by scavenging in the gutters before finding their way to the Pit, the Twins were nearly feral and more than a servoful to raise. But Ratchet and Ironhide had been patient and loving. While the Twins never warmed to anyone besides their adopted caregivers, they loved and adored them. When the war broke out the Twins enlisted as soon as Ratchet and Ironhide did. Where their caregivers went, so went the Twins.

Now there was peace. But there was no peace for Ratchet and Ironhide. There was only two gaping holes in their sparks where their Twins had been. 

“I can’t do this, Hide. I don’t know how to be without them. I never wanted peace at this price,” Ratchet sobbed.

“We’ll see them in the Well, Ratchet. We’ll see them in the Well,” Ironhide said, tears streaming from his optics. The energon dagger firm in his grasp, Ironhide plunged it into the seam in Ratchet’s chestplates, stabbing him right in the spark.

“Thank you,” Ratchet whispered as he slumped in Ironhide’s arms.

“Right behind you, Ratchet,” Ironhide said, laying his lifelong friend on the floor, opening his own chestplates and plunging the dagger into his own spark.

*******************

It was First Aid who found the pair when the junior medic reported for his shift. No one, Autobot or Decepticon knew what to say. They laid the pair to rest on either side of the Twins, ensuring the family would rest together forever.

**Author's Note:**

> I missed Ironhide's day so I wrote a story centered on him and Ratchet.


End file.
